So, the next morning, Brian woke up bright and early to book a ride on the first ferry out at 7:30 AM. However, he was quickly told that this ferry had been cancelled due to the big storm rolling in and we would have to wait to get on the final 2:30 PM ferry. Then, 5 minutes later, he learned that this ferry had also been cancelled (its apparently only happened one other time in their history). That meant our first chance out was not until the next day IF the weather cleared up, which it wasn't slated to do! Remember, we only had the clothes on our backs and were crammed into a hotel room on a tiny island while still booked for our hotel in Athens. We were stuck! Lots of anxiety going on about now because we had no idea when we would be able to get off the island and back to our stuff and our original vacation plans.

Day 2...climbing all the hills in town

Everyone knows everyone else on Hydra and now they know us!! ;

By this time, we had explored every inch of Hydra and were worried about entertaining the kids when it did stop raining. Lets add to this that Tessa pee'd the bed...so Brian and I were washing all of her clothes out (the same ones that had vomit on them) in the bathroom sink and drying them in our rooms with hairdryers so she wouldn't have to be naked for too long. I have to admit that there was some freaking out going on between Brian and I- this stranded thing was definitely not in the plans. When the rain would clear during the day, we would explore more- climbing every hill and seeing the island from every vantage point. By this time, we were the ONLY tourists on the entire island (our American friends had to take a 30-minute ferry to the Peloponnese and a 3-hour taxi ride to Athens so they could catch their 6AM flight out the next morning). The locals were clamoring for our business, but soon realized that it was time to shut their doors- almost everything closed down at like 2 pm. It was sad and also funny (I can say it was funny now because we are home safe and sound). We ate a delicious dinner as the sun set over the gorgeous island, and we were hopeful about getting out the next morning (even though every local/new friend we talked to had a different prediction of how it would turn out). We had come to grips with our situation, whatever it may be, and decided to just go with it. Brian bought some hygiene basics and we hunkered down for another night.

Our last night at the yummiest restaurant in town (we tried several!) No makeup, no problem. Appearances were definitely starting to deteriorate...haha- so many awesome memories with these people that I love so much!

Brian woke up early again and headed to the ferry office to book our trip back. Despite horrible weather predictions for that hour, the ferry was going to be taking off! We were so relieved! We didn't have anything to pack, so we quickly headed out to the port and boarded our ferry, riding through the tiny Greek islands dotting the sea as the sun rose on Greece. It was gorgeous. We made it back to our Athens hotel and let the girls swim for a couple of hours, got showered and put on clean clothes (never taking that for granted again!) and headed out for the day to the Acropolis.

Stories about our family, photos to help us remember, and an occasional recipe to make you hungry. But, mostly a way for us to keep track of the things we do together...with our growing family of four daughters living in London.

Our Travels While Living Abroad ...

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